A Dayton manufacturing company was spending $15K/month on Google Ads with a reported 4.5x ROAS. The real number was 1.8x. Brand searches and repeat customers were inflating every metric.

Their Google Ads account counted every lead form submission as an ad conversion — including existing customers who searched the company name, clicked the branded ad, and submitted a quote request they would have submitted anyway. Brand searches were eating 35% of the budget. Another 20% went to broad match keywords triggering irrelevant searches in adjacent industries. The dashboard looked healthy. The bank account told a different story.

At $15K/month with real ROAS of 1.8x, the campaign was barely breakeven after cost of goods. The agency had recommended scaling to $25K. At real margins, that scale would have burned cash. The dashboard was not just wrong — it was guiding the business toward a financial cliff.

We separated brand from non-brand campaigns. Built negative keyword lists that eliminated the waste. Created proper exclusion audiences for existing customers. Rebuilt attribution to track only incremental leads. Real ROAS climbed to 3.4x within 60 days because the budget went where it actually mattered. GOSH Digital manages paid media for Dayton businesses with one rule: the bank account is the only scoreboard.